


The Mystery That Started It All

by Fix



Series: Scooby Doo Rewrite [1]
Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types, Scooby Doo Where Are You! (Cartoon), Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Cartoon 2010), What's New Scooby-Doo? (Cartoon), scooby doo - molly ofgeography au
Genre: African American Daphne Blake, Gen, Korean Fred Jones, Mexican Velma Dinkley, Other Tags and Characters to be added, Racism, but i did spend 13 years in usa public school, fetishizing/harassing at a typical high school level, im basing gibby's characterisation on actual incels from irl, mixed race fred jones, not that it should be typical, race-bent cast, racebent cast, so he will be very creepy and racist and sexist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28758570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fix/pseuds/Fix
Summary: Gibby Norton collapses in the hall after school one day. Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Fred Jones, and Shaggy Rogers find him unconscious. But when an administrator gets there, he assumes they did something to Gibby! The kids try to assert their innocence, but the school won't believe them. It's up to them to find out what really happened and prove their innocence.
Series: Scooby Doo Rewrite [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108442
Kudos: 4





	1. "Get up, Gibby!"

**Author's Note:**

> I completely made up the high school schedule so if you want to see the times/how it works I have a tumblr post with a timesheet: https://maybe-i-will-fandom.tumblr.com/post/640323633615683584/schedule-for-crystal-cove-high-school

Shaggy Rogers was sitting in the back corner of the classroom as usual. Mrs. Lapasky was droning on about the midpoint formula. Shaggy had actually found the beginning of the lecture interesting, the idea that you could add two things together – getting a length bigger than either of them – and use that to find something in the middle of them. It was cool in a way he kind of understood but not really. Like, he would definitely be able to do that on a test, but it was another one of those funky math things where he didn’t really see why it should make sense but was just gonna let the numbers do their thing. 

But now it was that time of day again where everyone started getting restless. 3:55pm. This happened in almost every class, but it was the worst towards the end of block 7. For most kids this was the last block of the day, and they were excited to get out. 

Their excitement made Shaggy super nervous. All those papers scratching. Kids just about to burst out of their seats. Backpacks zipping and unzipping. And through it all, a teacher droning on like there was no concern for time at all. Shaggy could hear his heartbeat in the blood pounding through his ears. 

His service dog, Scoobert Doobert (or Scooby, when he wasn’t on duty) (Shaggy had been 13 when he named him), could tell Shaggy was starting to get anxious. He got out from where he had been sitting under the desk in front of Shaggy and raised himself onto Shaggy. His arms over Shaggy’s chest, his body on Shaggy's lap. The weight was comforting and restricted Shaggy’s movement. 

Shaggy tried to take deep breaths. Calming breaths. Stomach breaths, like Mrs. Burkhem always had him practice in their monthly sessions. 

The clock hit 4. Shaggy couldn’t really pay attention to all that was happening. There was so much noise and movement. Scoobert whined in Shaggy’s ear. He knew this was an attempt to drown out the cacophony of noises. Shaggy closed his eyes and focused on his breathing and Scoobert’s panting. 

Eventually, the classroom was empty exept for Shaggy, Scoobert, and Mrs. Lapasky. 

“Norville?” Mrs. Lapasky asked. She was used to this daily occurrence by now. She’d even begun packing up her stuff and getting ready to leave before checking on Shaggy. That made him feel better. When the noises of 30 people getting ready to leave were reduced to the noises of only 1 person getting ready to leave. 

He’d asked her if she could leave without him. So that he could be the only one making noises when it was his turn to get ready to leave. She’d said she wished she could, but she had to be the one to lock her classroom at the end of the day. 

“Oh, Shaggy, sorry,” Mrs. Lapasky amended. He’d also asked her to call him Shaggy. She’d said it would be an adjustment for her. He’d been ‘Norville’ all of freshman year Algebra 1 and she hadn’t had him in her class last semester. But she’d said she would try, and seemed to be sticking true to her word. 

“Yeah, Mrs. Lapasky,” Shaggy said, his voice shaky. Scoobert got off of Shaggy and nosed his backpack to his feet. Shaggy collected his stuff off the desk and put it in the bag. He stood up and made his way to the door. “Have a good night,” he said to Mrs. Lapasky as she held the door open for him. 

“You too, Shaggy,” she replied, locking her classroom behind her. 

\---------------

Fred Jones had just finished making the last of the self-opening treasure chests for Crystal Cove High School’s spring show: The Little Mermaid. He put it on the ‘props processing’ table for the department head to see next rehearsal and started walking out toward the student lot. 

Most of the juniors and seniors in the theater club hung out around the neighborhood after rehearsals. They could all drive themselves home, so they didn’t need to wait at school for the late busses. On the other hand, most of the freshmen and sophomores couldn’t drive themselves home, so they all hung out after rehearsal waiting for the late busses together. 

Fred felt too awkward to intrude on the juniors and seniors. There were some underclassmen who hung out in that group too, and got rides home from upperclassmen neighbors or friends, but those were mostly the social butterflies. Fred did not have that kind of social confidence. But he also felt too awkward waiting with the rest of his grade for the late busses when he had a car of his own in the lot. His birthday was in the fall, so he was older than most of the sophomores and had already had a license by the time spring semester parking pass applications opened. 

He didn’t mind walking alone though. Sometimes on the way to the student lot he ran into friends of his leaving other extra-curricular activities. And often times he ran into Daphne Blake. 

Oh, Daphne. She’d been singing leads since freshman year. Fred swore she was the best singer in school. And she was smart, too. Wicked smart. The kind of smart that everyone had expected Fred to be freshman year. He still remembered the taunts from freshman year, mocking him for being “the only Asian in the whole world who’s bad at math.”

Daphne was one of the students who did flex schedule – meaning they weren’t always present during the whole school day – and even so she was still taking three AP classes. If Fred was honest with himself, he was kind of in awe of her. He really looked forward to those chance run-ins. 

Daphne was playing the lead in the musical, so usually she left around the same time as he did, since rehearsal ended at the same time for techs and actors alike, but her sister drove her home. Her sister was a senior, so her parking spot was in a way better location than Fred’s, meaning Daphne’s and Fred’s paths only lined up for part of the journey to the student lot, and it was easy to miss each other in that small time. Especially if one left rehearsal a couple minutes late. 

Fred supposed that today would be one of those days where their schedules didn’t align, since he’d wanted to stay a late to finish up the treasure chest. He’d planned to finish making them all last week, but he supposed finishing the Monday after wasn’t too bad. On Friday, he had accidentally scratched his arm against an edge he’d thought was sanded down but hadn’t been. The gash wasn’t that deep and actually didn’t even hurt at all, but even today it was still bleeding through his third bandage of the day. The props head had forced him to stop working for the rest of Friday rehearsal, hence the delay. 

It had been 6:34 when he’d checked his watch after finishing, and rehearsal let out at 6:10. He was almost halfway down the main hallway when he heard “Fred!”

Fred knew that voice! He stopped walking and turned around. 

\---------------

Daphne Blake unlocked her phone and clicked on the text notification. 

Delilah Blake (sent 6:08pm): Practice is running a little late can u wait until 7? 

She sent back a “sure” and put her phone back in her backpack. Rehearsal had just let out. She didn’t really feel like going to hang out with the upperclassmen until 7. To too many of them she was “Deeli’s little sister” or even “Dawn’s little sister,” since Dawn had been in the theater program back when she was in high school. 

She preferred just being “Daphne.” 

Usually she’d hang out with Fred Jones for a bit – he had his own car so they walked the same way toward the student lot after rehearsal. But she’d heard the props department was running a bit behind, so she wasn’t sure when he’d get out. 

She kinda hated big crowds. Ironic for an actress, she knows. She’s fine performing in front of them, just doesn’t like being in them. They make her feel trapped. Even as a kid, when her parents used to bring her and her sisters to events and such, she would find any excuse she could to sneak off to some quiet corner of the event location. There was this kid, Shaggy, who would usually be hiding there too. His family was also one of the big wealthy names in town that got invited to everything. Typically, she’d try to find him when she was hiding from the crowds. They weren’t really friends or anything, but it was less lonely that way. 

She decided to just walk towards the student lot and find some Block B homework room on the way to wait for Delilah in. 

She had just left the theater wing when she thought she heard something. Was that… a set of keys jangling?

A large dog came running up to her and started rubbing his head on her hand. “Scooby?” she asked, as if he could answer her. He kept rubbing his head against her hand. Uh, oh. If he was alone that meant…

“Where’s Shaggy?” she asked the dog. He got behind her and started to gently nudge her back. She started walking forward and Scooby came to her side to walk with her. 

Scooby led her to a hallway near the English wing. She heard crying, but she couldn’t see anyone. Scooby started walking faster now, going ahead of her. She ran after him. 

Scooby stopped in a common and went toward the window. Daphne followed him and found Shaggy curled up in a ball with his back against the wall and his backpack in front of him. She tapped him on the shoulder. “Shaggy?”

Shaggy sniffled but she could tell he had heard her. She gave him a few minutes, and slowly he lifted his head up from behind his backpack. “Daph? Like, what are you doing here?” he asked, his voice teetering on the edge of tears. 

“I’m walking out to the student lot. Wanna come with?”

Shaggy hiccupped. “I’m, like, I’m supposed to go to wait for the busses. I just got out of English. But. Like,” he trailed off. 

Daphne was pretty sure she knew where he was going. “Yeah, I’m trying to avoid the bus crowd too. Want me to ask Delilah if we can drive you home too?”

“No,” Shaggy said, his voice shaky. “I think I’ll just. Like. Wait here. I’m ok,” he unzipped the front pocket of his backpack and took out a dog treat. He gave it to Scooby, who laid down in front of him and started biting away at it. 

Daphne stood back up. She turned to walk away, but then looked back at Shaggy. She really felt like she should do more, but… well, they just weren’t those kinds of friends. 

She walked back toward the main hallway. She started heading toward the student lot and saw someone in front of her. She’d recognize that bleach-blond anywhere. “Fred!” she called. 

He stopped walking and turned around to face her. “Hey, Daphne!” he said. “Whoa, nice hair! Is that for the show?”

Over the weekend, Daphne had gotten her hair done. She had decided to have red braided into her hair. The costume room had a few red wigs in them, but she didn’t really like the fit of any of them. “Yeah,” she said, catching up to Fred, “and I just wanted to change things up a bit.” She’d had her hair in an afro before the weekend. 

“Well, I-” Fred started to say when he was interrupted by a scream. 

“Help! Help! Somebody help!!”

Daphne knew that voice. “Jinkies! That’s Velma!” she said in shock. Fred started running toward where they’d heard the shouts from. The movement snapped Daphne out of it and she ran after him. 

\---------------

Velma Dinkley locked the crate her robot was stored in and headed back to her work bench. She picked up her pliers and walked them over to the return rack. Gibby had already finished cleaning up and seemed to be headed her way. Ugh. She beelined back to her bench to try and get her headphones out of her bag. 

Too late. Gibby intercepted her on the way there. “Hey there, my exotic beauty! Wanna come to the school dance with me next Friday?” he said. She had to physically restrain herself from vomiting in his face. 

She shoved the wire clippings on her bench into the drawer as fast as she could and picked up her backpack. “I told you, Gibby. Stop calling me exotic. It’s racist.”

“I’m not racist!” Gibby said, following after her as she started walking out of the lab. “It’s just true. You’re from a foreign place, so you’re exotic.”

Velma pushed open the lab doors and stalked away. Gibby ran up after her. “For the twenty-something-eth time, Gibby. I was born in America. My parents were born in America. My grandparents were born in America.” She registered what was happening and stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Not that I should ever have to give out that much information just for you to treat me with basic respect.”

“But you speak Spanish,” Gibby said. Velma rolled her eyes at him and started walking away again. 

She made it out of the lab wing to the English hall before he caught up to her again. “So anyway,” he said. “The dance?”

Velma didn’t even turn to look at him as she said a firm “no.”

She heard something large fall over behind her. She wasn’t gonna turn around to look. But then she heard a coughing sound behind her. Like a gasping for air. 

She sighed. Gibby was so overdramatic. 

She turned around. Gibby was laying down in the hallway, awkwardly sprawled across his backpack. She rolled her eyes. “Stop being so dramatic, Gibby, get up.”

Gibby didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to be breathing. She got closer to him and tapped his shoulder with her foot. “Gibby?” No response. “Get up, Gibby!”

His head rolled to the side. She saw that his lips were purple. She screamed. She screamed again. 

Then she got her wits about her. “Help! Help! Somebody help!!”

\---------------

Fred turned the corner and saw two people in the middle of the hallway. He started running again, towards them. He could hear Daphne close behind him. He didn’t recognize either of the people in the hallway, but Daphne ran past him and hugged the girl.

“Velma oh my gosh.”

The girl, Velma, hugged her back. “He just passed out I don’t know what happened!” They pulled apart and turned to look at the guy collapsed on the floor. Fred heard the sound of something metallic jingling and people running toward them. Some lanky, dirty-blond guy and a gigantic dog came to a skidding stop just short of crashing into them. 

“Like, what’s with all the screaming?” the guy asked. His dog started sniffing around the kid collapsed on the floor, then started howling like all hell had broken loose. Fred, Daphne, and the other girl all covered their ears and the lanky kid started trying to drag his dog away from the guy on the floor. “Come on, Scoob! Shhh! It’s ok, ol’ buddy ol’ pal.” The dog kept howling. 

An administrator stepped in front of the kids. Fred couldn’t remember his name, but he knew he was one of the mean ones. The dog was so loud that Fred hadn’t even heard him coming. “What is the meaning of this!” the man shouted. 

Of course that got the dog quiet. It started whimpering with its tail between its legs. Fred felt sorry for it, getting yelled at and probably no idea why. He’d seen the dog around campus with the lanky guy before. He was probably a service animal, likely trained to go off like that at sight of an unconscious person. Poor thing. 

“He just collapsed sir!” Velma said. “We should call an ambulance or something!”

“Just collapsed, huh?” the administrator replied, a haughty note in his voice. “I see there’s blood on your arm, Mister Muscles. And the dog is screaming like it was a catfight. We don’t tolerate fighting in school.”

Velma gasped “No!” Daphne hugged her tighter and stayed silent. 

“We weren’t fighting, sir,” Fred said. “I got this cut last week, and he was already on the ground when we got here.”

“Yeah, totally!” The lanky kid said. 

The administrator huffed. “Week-old cuts don’t bleed like that, kid. But nice try. I bet you and the dog attacked and the girls bandaged you up, huh?”

“No, that’s not what-” Velma started to say. 

“Stop interrupting me!” the man shouted. “Suspended. You’re all suspended.”

Fred could hear sirens in the distance. They sounded like they were coming closer. “I’ve already called emergency services and told them how to get to this hallway. They’ll find the kid. You four, come with me to the front office.”

“Oh, great,” Daphne groaned.


	2. Suspension?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It felt weird for Daphne to have so many siblings and the rest to have none, so I made Dorothy Fred’s older sister instead of Daphne’s. Also, personally I usually don't say family relation names in English, so the characters here don't either. For Fred's section: 누나 just means 'older sister'

The four of them were sitting in the front office, backpacks at their feet. Daphne looked down forlornly at her phone, open to her chat with Deeli. 

Delilah Blake (sent 6:08pm): Practice is running a little late can u wait until 7? 

Me (sent 6:11pm): sure

Me (sent 6:48pm): hey so... i was walking down the hall and heard velma scream so we went to check it out and some dude was passed out on the floor. we literally didn’t do anything but admin won’t believe us. i think i might get suspended…. please don’t tell mom and dad before i can do it in person 

Me (sent 6:50pm): norville rogers is here too, if u remember him. he goes by Shaggy now

Daphne groaned internally. Of all her sisters to have to send a text like that to…. Delilah would not have been her first choice. She may be the closest in age to Daphne but she was actually probably the sister Daphne was least close to. 

Daisy and Daphne shared a love of chemistry. To be honest, Daisy was probably the sister Daphne was closest to, despite their eight year age gap. Daisy had been the one to inspire Daphne’s love of chemistry in the first place. She could’ve softened her up by first talking about some project she’s been working on. Daisy was working as a research assistant part-time to help pay off medschool. Daphne’s parents could have paid for medschool for all three of her sisters and still had enough left to send Daphne to an Ivy, but Daisy was insisting on paying off everything past undergrad herself. Daphne didn’t really get why, but she thought it was probably some oldest-sister-guilt thing she wouldn’t understand anyway. Daisy had even offered to pay rent when she moved back in after graduating, but that was where their parents had drawn the line and refused to accept her money. 

Dawn and Daphne shared a love of fashion. Any time Daisy or Delilah got a new outfit, you can bet it was thanks to Dawn or Daphne either dragging them out to the mall or just buying it themselves. They also bonded over aspects of the theater club, performances, and acting. Even though Dawn had graduated the year before Daphne had started high school. 

Delilah and Daphne, well... They just never really clicked. It’s not like they disliked each other or anything. Daphne had friends who absolutely hated their siblings. She felt so sorry for them. She and Delilah weren’t like that. It was just that they were more like people who happened to live in the same house than sisters. Dawn and Delilah had always been really close, but Daphne found Delilah… a bit too intense at times. They just never hung out, really. Outside from their rides to and from school. 

It's not that Daphne was worried about Delilah using the suspension against her or anything. She knew people who had to be that on-guard with their family, and she was thankful that she never had to deal with anything like that. Texting Delilah felt more… embarrassing than exposing. Like farting while mic-ed but offstage; you know some sound tech out there definitely heard, even if nothing will come of it and the audience is none the wiser. 

Daphne sighed. Four sisters at the same high school and Daphne was the first of them to ever get suspended. Of course. 

\---------------

Velma was mad. Honestly, she should’ve just walked away from Gibby. But no, she had to check that he was ok, and now she’d landed herself a suspension. The sumo robotics competition was in less than two months and she’d lose who knows how much time being banned from grounds. Leave it to Gibby. 

And not only had she gotten herself in trouble. She’d accidentally brought three others with her. And literally the most awkward combination of peers. Well, one of them was some guy she’d never met before. That wasn’t too bad. 

But there was also Daphne, her ex from freshman year. They were still friends, so her embarrassment made no sense. But Daphne had been so sweet when they were dating. The fact that Gibby had been rudely ‘asking her out’ made Velma embarrassed that she had broken up with Daphne, even though Daphne definitely didn’t even know Gibby was asking her out. And Daphne definitely didn’t harbor any ill-will. They regularly hung out as friends now. 

Then there was Norville Rogers, the guy she had tutored in Algebra 1 Freshman year. His dog was laying across his torso, even though Velma remembered from freshman year that the service dog was off-duty by this time of day. Norville had debilitating anxiety and had spent the entire time in the office so far looking like he was on the verge of a panic attack. She felt particularly bad about getting him into this. 

Daphne sighed. 

“This is ridiculous,” the guy Velma had never met before said. It seemed awkward to ask for his name now. “We didn’t even do anything!”

“They’re not gonna believe us,” Daphne said, sounding defeated. “Everyone knows Mr. Tratner hates kids.”

“Like, he’ll give you detention for sneezing too loud!” Norville added, voice shaky. 

Velma groaned. “I’m sorry you guys. This is all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault! What were you supposed to do, not help him? It’s Tratner’s fault for not believing us,” the guy Velma didn’t know said. He seemed nice. 

They lapsed back into silence for a bit after that. Then the school secretary walked over to the line of chairs they were sitting in. “Mr. Tratner will see you now. Come with me.”

The secretary led them down a hallway lined with teacher mailboxes on one side and doors on the other. They stopped in front of the third door down. The secretary gestured for them to go in, then walked back to the front desk. 

“Alright,” Tratner said sternly. He seemed to be getting quite the power trip out of this. With exaggerated motions, he took out four suspension slips. “Student IDs. Cough ‘em up, hand ‘em over.”

Velma took off her backpack and opened the front pocket. She took her ID out of her wallet and put it on Tranter’s desk next to where Daphne had put hers. She saw the other guy drop his on the opposite side of Daphne’s. It said his name was Frederick ChungAe Jones. 

Tratner waited until Norville had shakily dropped his student ID on top of the other three. Then he swept up the four IDs and brought them closer to him. He filled out the suspension forms. He was right-handed and held the pen under his thumb, Velma noted. 

They stood there in silence while he wrote. After a while he pushed their student IDs back across the desk. Velma put hers back in her wallet then zipped her bag closed again. Tratner started ripping the pink carbon copies off the back of each slip. He unlocked a drawer on the right hand side of his desk and put the white pages in there. He didn’t bother to push the pink ones towards them. He just stood up from his desk and said “have your parents sign these. They need to scan and email the signed slips back to us before school starts tomorrow. First infraction for fighting gets two weeks, so you’re suspended for the rest of this week, all of next week, and Monday the week after that.” He walked out of his office, clearly waiting for them to follow him. 

Everyone looked unhappy. Velma walked around Tratner’s desk to the other side and picked up her slip. The “Reason for Suspension:” line was filled out “Fighting, helped knock a student unconscious.” What a load of malarky. She walked out the door and down the hall. Tratner was waiting in the front office. She stopped in front of him and heard the rest of the group walking down the hall behind her. 

“Mrs. Cheng,” he called to the P.E. teacher about to walk out of the office, two envelopes in hand. “Escort these miscreants to the gym to wait for the busses, would ya?”

Mrs. Cheng raised an eyebrow at him. Then she looked at the kids and her face softened. She nodded her head towards the door, so they followed her out. 

“Actually, Mrs, Cheng, my sister will drive us all home. We can just go meet her in the student lot,” Daphne said. Frederick Jones shot her a confused look. Velma was confused too. Norville looked thankful. 

“Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to let you kids just wander the halls after Block 7,” Mrs. Cheng said. Daphne looked down. “But I was about to leave anyway,” she said, shaking her mail as proof. “I could take you all to the student lot on my way out.”

Velma looked back at Daphne. She was nodding happily. “That would be great! My sister’s practice ended at 7 so she should be at the car.”

Daphne led them to a student lot exit, Mrs. Cheng following them the whole time. Daphne brought them to a bulky minivan in one of the senior spots. There was already someone in the driver’s side. Daphne’s sister, Delilah. Velma recognized her from the times she’d been to Daphne’s house. Delilah waved at them through the window. “Alright,” Mrs. Cheng said, starting to walk away. “Drive safe kids!”

“Thanks, have a good night!” Frederick called after her. 

Delilah got out of the car. “Suspended? How could he do that to you?!”

“I don’t know,” Daphne said, sounding on the verge of tears. Frederick patted her shoulder and she smiled at him. Then she sniffed and turned back to her sister. “By the way, could we give everyone else a ride home? Well, Freddie has his own car. But Velma and Shaggy?”

‘Shaggy?’ Velma wondered. She guessed that must be his nickname. “Sure,” Delilah said, getting back into the driver’s seat. “Hop on in!”

“See ya’ guys!” Freddie Jones said, waving as he walked away. 

“See you later, Fred!” Daphne said, waving back. She turned to Velma. “It’s one of those old cars with a bench in the front, so you can sit up front with me,” she said. “And Scooby can lay down in the trunk. I think there’s only one seat up in the back,” she said, turning to Shaggy. He nodded. 

Velma followed Daphne through the front door and Shaggy opened the back door. His dog jumped in then he sat down behind Velma. “So,” Delilah said, opening the GPS app on her phone and sticking it in the vent holder. “Do you know who’s closer?”

“I live pretty close to the school,” Velma said. “Sometimes I walk.”

“Ok, Velma first!” Delilah said. “What’s your address?”

Velma gave Delilah her address and Delilah typed it into her phone. Then she turned on the car and they pulled out of the lot. It took around six minutes to drive to Velma’s house. Dalilah pulled up to the curb and Velma slid the door open. She hopped out. “Thank you for the ride!” she said, closing the door. She put her backpack back on and saw Daphne wave out the window as Delilah pulled away. 

She watched the car disappear down the end of the street then sighed. There was no delaying the inevitable. 

She walked up to the door and opened it. Her parents were already home so it was unlocked. “Mom? Dad?” she called. “I have some bad news.”

Her parents came out in to the entryway, concerned looks on their faces. “What’s wrong sweetheart?” her dad asked. 

Velma could feel her throat tightening. She wondered why. “It’s that Gibby Norton!” she said. She started to cry. She was surprised. She doesn’t usually cry, and she wasn’t entirely sure why she was crying now. Fear at his refusal to accept her boundaries? Anger at his racism? Sadness about the suspension? Guilt at getting her peers in trouble? Nervousness about the competition? Who knows. 

Her mom pulled her in for a hug and her dad rubbed soothing circles on her shoulder. “How many times do we have to complain to the school about that kid,” her dad said, frustrated. 

Velma stopped crying and pulled away from the hug. “He just fell over. There was nothing any of us did. But Mr. Tartner found four of us after we had already found Gibby and he assumed we were the ones who knocked him out. Now we all have two weeks’ suspension,” she said, glumly. 

“Oh, mija,” her mom said, pulling her back into a hug. 

“Is there anything we can do?” her dad asked. 

Velma pulled away from the hug. She felt drained all of the sudden. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I think I’m just gonna go to my room and be alone for a while.” She handed them the pink slip of paper. “You have to sign this and email it before school starts tomorrow.”

Velma’s mom took the slip, her dad still making a surprised face. Velma started walking up the stairs. Her parents were probably giving concerned looks to each other behind her back. 

Velma got to her bedroom and opened the door. She put her bag down on the floor by her desk and went over to her bed. She laid down on it. “Ugh,” she groaned in frustration. 

\---------------

“Two weeks!” Fred’s dad asked in surprise after Fred handed him the pink sheet. “For a fight you didn’t even start?”

“There wasn’t even any fight!” Fred said. “He just fainted on his own.”

Fred’s dad looked down at the sheet and sighed. He looked at his watch. “It’s a bit too late to call your mother with this, since she has to be up early tomorrow morning,” he said. Fred’s mom was a geologist, and her job required her to travel a lot to examine different natural disasters, mineral deposits, and parts of the Earth’s crust. She was in Texas with a research team working with paleontologists on a site that could potentially shed light on The Cambrian Explosion. 

Since it was already 7:40pm in Crystal Cove, California, it would be almost 10pm for Fred’s mom. “I’ll call her tomorrow morning to tell her,” Fred’s dad said. 

“I’m sorry,” Fred said. 

“No need to apologize,” Fred’s dad sighed. “I’m not mad at you. I just can’t believe how the school is handling this.” He looked back up from the paper to Fred’s face and put his hand comfortingly on Fred’s shoulder. “How are you taking it?”

Fred shrugged. “It’ll be hard to catch up but I’ll do my best.”

Fred’s dad squeezed his shoulder reassuringly then went to get a pen. “We just got a bunch of cars in, so I can’t take work off this short notice,” he said. Fred’s dad was an auto-repair mechanic. “You want me to ask Dorothy if she can come down so you’re not all alone?”

“No that’s fine,” Fred said. “I don’t want to make her drive all the way here. I’ll ask Angel for some extra shifts or something to keep myself busy.” Angel was Fred’s boss at his weekend job at the K-GHOUL radio station. 

Fred’s dad nodded. He looked a bit concerned. “Just let me know if there’s anything I can do, ok?”

“Will do,” Fred said before heading off to his room. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to text Dorothy. 

Me (sent 7:42pm): I got suspended for two weeks bc I found an unconscious guy and they assumed I did it ☹

As soon as Fred sent the message, the three little dots popped up showing that his sister was typing a reply. 

누나 (sent 7:43pm): Oh no Freddie that’s awful! 

누나 (sent 7:43pm): What r u gonna do abt it?

Me (sent 7:43pm): Idt there’s anything I can do ☹ the lead of the musical also got suspended so maybe the two of us can try to work something out to still get to rehearsal. I’m just worried because I finally caught up in homework last week and now I’ll be behind again ☹

누나 (sent 7:44 pm): Don’t worry about the play, I’m sure everything will work out. I can come down the weekend you go back to school and help you catch up

Me (sent 7:44pm): Thanks 😊

\---------------

“Suspended?” Daphne’s dad asked incredulously. “When you weren’t even fighting?” Daphne nodded.

“Did the teacher not hear Velma scream?” her mom asked. 

“I guess not,” Daphne said. “Though I don’t understand how he could’ve missed it!”

Daphne’s mom sighed. 

Daphne felt on the verge of tears. This was all so unfair! And missing two whole weeks of rehearsal… they’d definitely recast her role. And she hadn’t even done anything!

“Awww, don’t be so upset, sweetie,” Daphne’s mom said. “It’ll all work out!”

“Yeah, we’ll take care of it. Why don’t you go on to your room, sweetheart,” her Dad said. “We’ll sign this and send it.”

Daphne nodded sadly and went up to her room before she started to cry. 

\---------------

“Suspended?!” Shaggy’s dad exclaimed. “What are you supposed to do for two weeks?!”

“Oh Norville, I thought that dog was supposed to keep you out of the kind of trouble you used to get into, not get you into whole new kinds of trouble,” Shaggy’s mom said. “I mean, fighting? My word!”

“I told you when he was in 8th grade, that dog is no good!”

Scooby stayed pressed firmly against Shaggy’s leg. Shaggy looked down at him for comfort. “Scooby isn’t the problem,” Shaggy said. “We weren’t even, like, fighting. The guy was already like passed out when we got there.”

Shaggy’s mom sighed. “Just go to your room, son, we’ll handle this.”

\--------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (disclaimer for my simile towards the start of the chapter: I was a sound tech in high school and never once heard anyone secretly fart on the mics, so if you’re a high school actor and that line made you concerned then no need!)


	3. Suspension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my wonderful friend MJ for beta-reading this chapter! And teaching me how to make Ao3 paragraphs! I have also been informed (by them) that 2 weeks is probably an unrealistically long amount of time to be suspended for. Oh well :,)

Shaggy was standing with his right ear pressed against the inside of his bedroom door, straining to hear anything. Scooby was sitting in front of him, watching him curiously.

“Ok, Scoob,” Shaggy whispered, reaching for the doorknob. “I think the coast is clear, let’s go!”

Shaggy turned the handle quickly then slowly opened the door. That was the trick for getting out of his bedroom as quietly as possible.

It wasn’t that he was like, scared of his parents or anything. It was just that he preferred not to run into them. Yeah.

He just hated being in trouble, was all. And like two weeks’ suspension was definitely trouble.

Scooby could sense the sensitive nature of the outing. He was padding lightly behind Shaggy and he was taking care to not jingle his collar. Shaggy walked over the hallway to the large staircase that led down to the kitchen. He kept his ears at attention as he descended.

He pulled open the freezer door and looked around. Toward the back of the top shelf, he found what he was looking for – low-fat, low-sodium (i.e. safe for Scooby too) pizzas. He took out three boxes.

“Like, mission accomplished, Scoob!” he said with a chuckle as he and Scooby went back up the stairs. At the top of the stairs he paused – he had just heard something. He stood very still and strained his ears again. His mom’s footsteps. They were coming from the floor below, somewhere around the dining room. He released the breath he was holding and started walking back to his room again.

He slipped through the still-open door and plopped down on his big beanbag chair. Scooby closed the door behind him then came over to lean against the beanbag.

Shaggy put two boxes on the floor beside him and opened the third one. He ripped it into quarters and handed a quarter to Scooby. Scooby took it in his mouth then dropped it onto the floor and started licking and biting at it.

Shaggy sighed. Scooby paused from his ministrations to look up at him. “It’s gonna be a long two weeks, isn’t it Scoob?”

Scooby whined and licked Shaggy’s arm in sympathy. Shaggy took another quarter out of the open box and started biting into the frozen meal himself.

\---------------

Daphne was hunched over her desk, listlessly watching the clumps in her lava lamp bubble up and fall down, bubble up and fall down, bubble up and…

Oh, she was so bored.

She sat up from her desk and walked over to flop dramatically onto her bed instead. She laid there motionlessly for a couple moments. Bored again, she lifted her phone up from her nightstand to look at the notifications screen.

Dawn Blake (6 minutes ago): Hey Daph, I heard about the show. I’m sorry. Wanna talk about it?

Fred Jones (17 minutes ago): :( at least there’s always next fall? Sorry though that sucks :/

Daisy Blake to Blakes At Home (18 minutes ago): I’ll get some desserts omw home. Hang in there, Dap…

Mom (30 minutes ago): I didn’t want to wake you in case ur sleeping in, but I just had to run out for a q…

Office of Mayor Janet Nett… (31 minutes ago): Valued Constituent Daphne B, this Friday night at City H…

Dad to Blakes At Large (37 minutes ago): Got to work safely! Reminder to everyone that for this projec…

InstaSnap (44 minutes ago): CrystalCoveCorvettes, JoeyDrawsThings, victor_c, Hannahb, and 17 others…

She dropped her phone back onto the nightstand with a sigh.

Everything about this felt utterly unfair. All she had been doing was checking on a fellow classmate, and this is how the school repays her? Suspended. Which means she can’t be on campus for two whole weeks. Which means she lost the lead in the musical.

On Monday night, she had texted the group chat of the leads and stage managers letting them know what happened. The next morning they’d informed her that, regretfully, her suspension meant her role would have to be recast. That was yesterday. She’d spent the rest of Tuesday watching HGTV and Queer Eye to try to cheer herself up. It seemed, however, that her brain had reached its television maximum. Today it just wasn’t having it.

She sighed and walked over to her mirror. At least she was still absolutely rocking the red, Ariel or no Ariel.

She heard someone knock on her door. “Come in!”

Her mom opened the door and stepped in. “Hi sweetie, I figured you were probably awake by now. I just wanted to come and see how you’re doing.”

“I’m ok,” Daphne said.

Her mom made an “I don’t believe you for a second” face and sat down at her desk chair. Daphne sat down on the edge of her bed.

“Why don’t you call one of your friends or something? Hang out so you’re not all alone?”

“All my friends are at school, mom.” 

“What about Velma? She got suspended too. And didn’t you say you knew the other two kids? Someone from theater and the Rogers’ son? Hang out with them! I bet they’re just as bored as you are,” her mom suggested.

Daphne thought it over. It actually didn’t seem like a bad idea. “You know, mom. You’re right!” she said with a smile.

Her mom returned the smile and stood up. “You can have them come over here any time, or if you all want to meet up some morning before work I can drive you.”

“Thanks, mom,” Daphne said. Her mom smiled at her and closed her bedroom door again behind her. 

\---------------

Velma had spent the first day of suspension doing all of the long-term projects and homework she had. She hadn’t been able to finish them all in one day, so she’d spent the first part of day two finishing them up. She’d spent the rest of day two feeling sorry for herself, but now, on day three, she wanted to try something new. Today, she had decided to try her hand at baking. The brownie batter had tasted good. Hopefully the finished product would turn out well. She also had cupcakes in the oven now, but she didn’t have high hopes for them. The batter had not been great, to say the least.

She looked at the kitchen island. Covered in flour, ingredient bags, and used bowls. She should probably take the time while the desserts were baking to clean.

Then she saw her phone light up on the counter. Eh, she could stand to wait until after the treats were done to clean up. That way she could eat them as reward for all the hard cleaning work.

She wiped her hands off on the rag she’d been using and picked up her phone, walking out into the living room as she unlocked it.

Daphe Blake to Me, Unknown Number (sent 10:12am): hey guys! i figured you were all probably as bored as me lol. wanna hang out?

Daphne’s contact bubble still had three dots next to it, so she had more to say. Velma sat down on the couch and waited.

Daphne Blake to Me, Unknown Number (sent 10:13am): also does anyone have shaggy’s number? if not then our parents are friends so i can ask that way but i thought i’d check first

Velma had Shaggy’s number from when she’d been his tutor. She opened her contacts app then updated his name before going back to messages.

Me to Daphne Blake, Unknown Number (sent 10:13am): I do

You added Shaggy Rogers to the group: Daphne Blake, Shaggy Rogers, Unknown Number.

Velma assumed the unknown number was probably Fred Jones. She added a contact profile for him.

Fred Jones (sent 10:14am): I picked up a couple extra hours at work to spend the time lol. But other than that I’m down to hang out :)

Me (sent 10:14am): I’m free any time

Me (sent 10:15am): Well I have things in the oven rn but after that

Daphne Blake (sent 10:15am): great! fred, what times are u working?

Fred Jones (sent 10:15am): 4-7pm each week day

Daphne Blake (sent 10:15am): ok! mornings work best for me anyway so my mom can drive me before she leaves for work at 10. or u guys could come to my house

Me (sent 10:15am): We can do your house, Daphne

Daphne Blake (sent 10:16am): alrighty so then when shaggy comes on we can plan a time

Velma put her phone down and walked over to her dad’s office. He was an accountant, so he typically worked from home except when he had meetings. She knocked on the door.

“Yes?” he called from inside.

Velma opened the door and peeked her head in. “Hey, papa. Me and the other kids who got suspended were thinking of hanging out since we’re all bored.”

Velma’s dad swiveled his chair to face her. “That sounds like a great idea, Velma! Do you need me to drive you?”

“We’re still working out the details, but could you?”

“I’d be happy to. I don’t have any meetings this week so I can take you any time.”

“Thanks, dad,” Velma said as she closed his door again and headed back to the couch.

\---------------

Shaggy couldn’t breathe. He was crying. He couldn’t breathe. He was shaking all over and he couldn’t –

Scooby came back into Shaggy’s room, collar jangling. Shaggy’s thoughts were a tornado of “suspended,” “home for two weeks,” “here for two weeks,” “suspension” – there was no escape. No other thoughts could enter. The three thoughts were chasing each other around inside his head. The tornado had him encircled. It was stealing all his oxygen and Shaggy couldn’t breathe. He –

Scooby put his front two legs up onto Shaggy’s chest. He whined and licked his face, trying to ground him. Shaggy let Scooby push him back until he was leaning against the side of his bed, Scooby applying steady pressure on his abdomen. He listened to Scooby’s panting.

He slowly came back down. The tornado slowly dissipated.

They sat there like that for a long time. Shaggy wasn’t sure how long. But the tornado was gone now. He could breathe again. “Ok, Scoob,” he said, his voice shaky.

Scooby sat back up off of Shaggy’s chest. He started to head for the door – he was trained to bring someone to help when Shaggy was having an attack.

“Don’t bother, Scooby,” he said. Scooby turned around with a confused face. “They’re not gonna come.” His parents were the only ones Scooby could’ve gone to get. “Just get my water.”

When Shaggy’s panic attacks were particularly bad, like that one had been, he had psychosomatic symptoms. His psychiatrist said that was apparently common for teenagers. His legs were still functional, if shaky, but he couldn’t feel or move his arms. The water bottle in his backpack was especially designed for situations like this, Scooby could use his mouth to squeeze the base to get water to come out for Shaggy.

Shaggy drank from the bottle until it was empty. Then Scooby took the bottle and brought Shaggy his phone instead. He placed it in front of Shaggy’s crossed legs.

“Thanks, Scooby.” Shaggy leaned forward so that he wasn’t using the bed to support himself any more. He hovered his face over his phone to unlock it.

“Ok, Phone Assistant, read my new notifications,” he said. The phone started reading messages out to him in its robotic little voice.

He’d been added to a group chat with Velma Math Tutor and two others. They were talking about a plan to meet up at Daphne’s house some morning. That must be Velma, Daphne, and that other guy they got suspended with.

Shaggy was so happy he almost started crying again. He laughed out loud. “You hear that, Scooby?”

Scooby perked his ears up. “Daphne saving the day again, just like when we were kids,” Shaggy said, smiling.

It would be a few hours before his arms came back to functioning. He’d respond to the texts then. For now, he leaned back against his bed and sighed. “Maybe it’ll be ok, Scoob.”

Scooby came over and sat beside him. ‘Maybe it will,’ he seemed to be saying.


End file.
